Fighting tax evasion and avoidance is a topical issue on the G20 agenda

"Fighting tax evasion and avoidance is a topical issue on the G20 agenda,"as reported by Chief of the Presidential Experts' Directorate and Russian G20 Sherpa Ksenia Yudaeva at the OECD Forum on Tax Administration.

Ms. Yudaeva informed that within the framework of Russia's Presidency of the G20 work on this issue was being carried out both at the level of the Finance Ministers and at the Sherpas' level, with an emphasis on finding practical solutions to this problem, specifically in the areas of information exchange and BEPS base erosion and profit shifting.

She added that the G20 had been supporting the OECD in developing a system for automatic exchange of information between financial institutions. "The goal is to maximize compliance benefits for member countries, reduce costs for financial institutions and provide the necessary safeguards through the development of a single standard," Ms. Yudaeva commented.

A report on introducing a system of automatic exchange of information and an action plan for fighting tax evasion by multinationals will be submitted by the meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in July 2013, according to the Russian Sherpa.

Ksenia Yudaeva stressed that the G20 aspired to deliver concrete results by the St.Petersburg Summit, adding that the Leaders could discuss how to handle non-cooperative jurisdictions, and how to promote the implementation of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) international standards.

"At the London Summit in 2009, the G20 committed to fight against tax havens and non-cooperative jurisdictions to protect our public finance and the global financial system from the risks posed by those jurisdictions. Since then we have made significant progress to improve compliance with the international standards and strengthen the process of identifying non-cooperative jurisdictions," Ksenia Yudaeva concluded.